William Monroe
William Monroe is the second Prime Minister of Qumar and was elected in December of 1984, taking the oath of office on January 1st, 1985 and serving until 1989. Early Years William Monroe was born in the United Kingdom on July 11th, 1932. He went to Cambridge university, had three sisters, and his father was a United Kingdom Member of Parliament for 10 years. At age 29 he moved to Iran and acted as a journalist for political news until getting fired six years later for having an affair with an Iranian government member who was feeding him information. William was a spy for the rebelion and eventually joined the nation of Qumar when it was founded after fleeing Iran. He was appointed Minister for Energy under Peraul Mc'Neil in 1976. Minister for Energy William lead Qumar's new Energy Department as the first Minister for Energy in Qumar. He set up several major coal and oil power plants inside of the lower provinces of Qumar providing mass amounts of jobs and buying loads of Qumarian oil. Power was cheap, jobs paid well, and more oil jobs were created. He was considered a great success in the position, however, had little regard for the environment. William's Minister for Energy tenure ended slightly early when he decided to resign to campaign hard for the labor party in the 1980 elections when November polls put the party down several seats from a majority. He helped over six members of parliament win in battleground areas. Election of 1980 William had considered running for the leadership of the labor party in the 1980 Leadership election, however was aware he lacked the experience needed. Instead, he made a deal with Neil Sherif and gave him his support in return for a hightened cabinet position under a Sherif administration. William is one of the many reasons Neil did not face opposition in the first Labor Party leadership election. William won his seat in Parliament in the north with 66% of the popular vote in his district. Deputy Prime Minister Tenure William was appointed Deputy Prime Minister by Neil Sherif in 1981 at the start of the term to his surprise. Neil chose him because of his experience in Education, Journalism and Energy, three major departments Sherif lacked in. William took the oath of office to become Deputy Prime Minister of Qumar on January 1st, 1981. Monroe lead a huge energy project throughout his tenure as Deputy Prime Minister to create over 13,000 new jobs in oil production and oil energy. He often was sent abroad to make trading deals after the 1983 UN deal because of the world's growing demand for oil. Monroe was a key factor in the signing of the UK MDP Treaty due to his connections with the incumbent Prime Minister at the time, having known him from when his father was a Member of Parliament. Election of 1984 William Monroe was aware of Neil Sherif's lack of popularity and made major backroom deals to win the leadership in the September election. Monroe pulled over 3/4 of the party memberships vote on the September 21st ballot and took the leadership position from Sherif. In the General Election, Monroe campaigned on the failing economy and how he'd use trade deals and the nation's resources to create thousands of new jobs. The party didn't win a majority, however, formed a coalition with the National's allowing Monroe to become Prime Minister. Angelia Ferri became his Deputy Prime Minister as well, being leader of the National Party. Prime Minister of Qumar Early Days William Monroe was sworn in on January 1st, 1985 as the second Prime Minister of Qumar and his party was thrilled he was able to save their election from the failing Sherif government. Monroe knew early on that forming a coalition with the Nationals meant almost certain death for the Labor Party in the 1988 elections, so he went to work quickly on acheiving everything he'd hoped to. Trade Deal with China In July of 1985, Monroe and Parliament passed a massive trade deal with a nearby neighbor, China, and sold them over 4 billion barrels of oil a week, creating about 7,000 jobs in Qumar. His popularity soared quickly after and he used that to slingshot in his next big proposal, new taxes. Rich Tax Monroe's administration passed a 1% tax increase on the wealthy owners of oil rigs at the beginning of 1986, which was heavily disliked. Monroe knew they would drop several points in polling, but he also knew it would help the economy signifigantly. The party put the money to good use and immediately spent it on new clinics throughout the nation, employing thousands of nurses, staffers, and helping thousands of the sick people in his nation. These clinics would help the nation deal with a major flu outbreak in the fall of 1986. The Monroe administration spent about $500 million on flu vaccines for the nation at the beginning of the fall of 1986 with the knowledge of what was spreading across the world. The nation avoided what many experts say, could've killed off thousands of Qumari people. Defense Spending and the Nationals The National Party pushed Monroe constantly throughout this tenure to increase Defense spending. Finally, in January of 1987 Parliament passed a $3 Billion increase in Defense spending and began purchasing weapons from the United Kingdom to beef up its border Defense and Airforce. While the nation was happy, Monroe knew this would hurt them when deficit talks began again later in the year. He was correct. Deficits In July of the same year, Parliament went deep into Deficit reduction mode as the Deficit rounded off at $54 Billion and debt had soared over $400 Billion. The Conservative party continously slammed the Coalition for their massive spending, while Labor hit back about the lack of taxes. The Conservatives however, were winning signifigantly in the media, and with an election a year away, Monroe knew this had to end quickly. Together the nationals and labor party put together a deal that raised $3 Billion in new taxes and cut $11 Billion in spending off of national social programs and social security, something Peraul Mc'Neil had put in place. This was a fairly unpopular solution, however, Monroe knew he needed to cut somewhere and raise more money for the government, or the labor party would be crushed in 1988. The Conservatives then slammed the labor party for, as usual, turning out a last minute crappy deal to reduce the deficit for the elections. Monroe had privately agreed with them, but continued to push in public it's help on the deficit. Labor Leadership Elections Monroe ran for re-election in the leadership election in September of 1988 and won with 154 votes with little opposition. Monroe had the best chance at winning the general election in 1988 with his high approval ratings in the mid 50's and the party knew that. However, as they got closer to the election, as Monroe perdicted, the Conservative party slammed the Labor Party and even the nationals had gone against several of their policies. Monroe was disappointed in Ferri's treachery, but had seen it coming. Labor ran a clean campaign and lost the 1988 election to a Hung Parliament. (1988 Labor Leadership Election ) 1988 Election Labor ended up losing the 1988 Election to a hung parliament with conservatives taking a several seat lead. The national party jumped ship and joined with the Conservatives to form a coalition government and elect the Conservative party leader as Prime Minister for the first time in Qumar history. The party then spent massive amounts of effort in ensuring they could hit back hard in 1992 to keep the conservatives in office for as short a time as possible. William Monroe then retired as Labor Leader and severed his last term in Parliament before retiring from politics for good in 1992.